Last week we took a look at the indie releases coming out over the summer months for those who want to avoid the explosive hyperbole of the omnipresent blockbusters. Since I love a small French drama just as much as watching The Rock punch his way into my heart, this week we take a look at the huge releases.
All movies deserve our love... even the big, dumb ones.
June 9
The Mummy: Tom Cruise reboots the "Mummy" franchise in Universal's attempt to create a shared monster universe of films. There will be reboots of "Bride of Frankenstein," "Creature from the Black Lagoon," "The Invisible Man," "Van Helsing" and "The Wolf Man," so hopefully you like the classic Universal monsters as much as I do. If not, the next few years might bore you.
June 16
Cars 3: Easily the least loved of Pixar's multiple franchises, the trailers for the next installment in the "Cars" series look dark as hell. Lightning McQueen getting in an accident in somber slow-motion might make the kids in the audience sad, but I'm personally excited to see how dark Pixar can go with a movie about anthropomorphized cars.
June 23
Transformers: The Last Knight: Yes, the "Transformers" movies are largely terrible and this one probably won't be any different, but there are few reasons why this one might be worth a few laughs. For one, it has Sir Anthony Hopkins starring, but more importantly, it also has something to do with King Arthur and the Knights Templar! The more insane director Michael Bay goes with connecting giant fighting robots to Arthurian legend, the more he should shut up and take my money.
July 7
Spider-Man: Homecoming: We've had plenty of "Spider-Man" movies and it seems like half of them were origin stories, but the reason to be excited for this all-new reboot is that we finally have Spider-Man back where he belongs: The Marvel Cinematic Universe. After his scene stealing appearance in "Civil War," Tom Holland's Spider-Man brings the wise-cracking goofiness that past iterations of Peter Parker were missing. Plus: Spider-Man and Iron Man together is a delightful time at the movies.
July 14
War for the Planet of the Apes: "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was entertaining and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" is a modern classic, so it's easy to get excited for the next installment in the series. Andy Serkis' Caesar is the finest CGI creation since Gollum and watching him journey from a childlike ape to a warrior on horseback has been quite powerful. I'm thinking this will be the highlight of the summer blockbuster season.
July 21
Dunkirk: Christopher Nolan sets his sights on making a historical war drama. All of his films so far have been genre pictures, so it will be interesting to see if he can find the emotional heart in the story of 300,000 Allied troops evacuating a French port town. As great as "The Dark Knight" and "Inception" are, the heart of them is mostly cold and sterile.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Luc Besson hasn't done epic fantasy like this since "The Fifth Element," so the world is holding its breath that this will be a modern classic. I'm nervous about it because star Dane DeHaan is a film killer for me. His work in "Amazing Spider-Man 2" was laughably bad and I'm not sure he can act without being petulant and whiny. The trailers look amazing, so I'm cautiously optimistic, but man, I really hate that kid.
